Business of Architecture Podcast

Today's guest is Ben Miller, co-founder of Fundrise.com. Fundrise is changing the way real estate development happens by putting power back in the hands of local residents. Fundrise is a crowdsourcing platform for funding real estate developments. Instead of developments being funded by large, heavily capitalized institutional investors, Fundrise allows boutique investors to get part of the action by investing as little as $100 to a development project. Fundrise gives individuals the ability to invest directly in local properties without the unnecessary fees and middlemen of conventional real estate equity finance. With Fundrise, people now have the power to earn financial returns while building the city they want to live in. Click here to read more about Architect As Developer - Crowdsourcing Real Estate Developments with Ben Miller of Fundrise.com

Brought to you by the Business of Architect Podcast . Today's guest was listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the ten most transparent leaders in business and profiled in the New York Times as a case study in online business building. Pat Flynn is a bestselling author and recently released a new book "Let Go", a memoir about his journey from being laid off from his job as an intern architect in 2008 to building an online business that now makes him $50,000 dollars a month.Pat's story shows how using the internet effectively can bring incredible success. In today's interview Pat shares a few lessons about on-line business building that can be applied to architects. I hope you are able to pick up some information that fuels your success as an architect.   Click here to read more about Pat Flynn: How Pat Went From Unemployed Architect Intern to Earning $60k a Month in Online Sales

Gregory LaVardera is a sole practitioner who runs a modern design architecture firm in New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. Greg is known for his innovative designs, including his modern home plan catalog, steel shipping box home designs, and the work of his architectural firm. Click here to read more about Selling Modern House Plans Online With Sole Practitioner Gregory LaVardera, Architect

Al Cross is a Vice President at PGAV Destinations, a St. Louis firm that designs theme parks. Some of PGAV's latest projects include the Space Shuttle Atlantis Complex and Lost Kingdom at the Tulsa Zoo. In our interview Al talks about one thing his firm looks for when hiring fresh graduates and the two business strategies that have helped PGAV succeed. Click here to read more about Designing Destination Resorts At A Large Architecture Firm With Al Cross

Should architects design as well as build the projects they work on? Francisca Alonso thinks so. Ten years ago she started her architecture firm AV Architects in the Metro DC area. She found that the great relationships she had created while designing her clients' projects turned sour in the hands of a contractor. Instead of handing off the project, she decided to build her clients' projects. Watch this video to find out why she says offering construction services was the best thing that happened to her architecture firm. Now they offer to build their architect projects, not just design them. Click here to read more about Architect Led Design Build with Francisca Alonso

Hilary Scruggs runs the design firm, Operative Ventures. Click here to read more about Architect as Developer: Developing An Urban Lot in San Antonio into Two Units, with Hilary Scruggs

Forget Clients! Develop your own projects. "Now is the time to do it", says Jonathan Segal, FAIA in our latest interview on Business of Architecture TV.   Segal has been designing, developing and building his own projects in Downtown San Diego since the late 1980's. And he has found the rewards of doing so are unparalleled. Segal explains how architects can take advantage of their design skills to build equity in their own projects while shaping the built environment in positive ways.   In this interview Segal explains:   The first steps to take if you want to develop your own project. The three project types you should consider for your first project. An overview of the online course he is using to spread this knowledge, Architect as Developer.   Listen now and share if you know someone who could use this information!   Click here to read more about Architect as Developer: Taking Control of Design and Getting Paid for it, with Jonathan Segal FAIA

For more like this, visit http://www.businessofarchitecture.com/yt . In this episode, Lee Calisti, AIA shares what it took for him to leave full-time employment and start his own architecture firm as a sole practitioner in 2003. Lee Calisti is the principal architect and owner of Lee Calisti, Architecture + Design, located 1 hour south-east of Pittsburg, Pennsylvannia. Lee is also an adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University where he teaches architecture. In addition to his architectural practice, Lee writes about his life as an architect on his popular blog, ThinkArchitect.Wordpress.com. In this episode, Lee explores the reasons why he left full-time employment to sail the uncharted and often stormy waters of sole proprietorship. He tells us how long it took to replace the salary he left while working for another firm, his most successful marketing channels, and more.   Click here to read more about Architect Unveiled, Tales of Starting An Architecture Firm: Lee Calisti AIA

Livingstone Mukasa is the founder of Archability.com, an online marketplace for design professionals. On Archability.com, architects, designers, and others in the building design industry can find work, bid on projects, and hire outsourced talent. Archability is a matchmaker that pairs those needing architectural and building design services with those who offer these services. Archability aims to put back to work some of the unemployed architects who have been suffering ever since the real estate bubble burst in 2008. In today's interview, Livingstone talks about how he went from being an unemployed architect himself to pitching Archability the Demo Silicon valley technology conference. Livingstone's story is inspiring for any architect who has an entreprenuerial spirit and wants to apply design training to a parallel field. Click here to read more about Helping The Unemployed Architect and Outsourcing Architecture, Livingstone Mukasa of Archability.com

Three years ago architect Bob Borson decided to start a blog "as a creative outlet" and "to try something new". Little did he know that within two years his blog would balloon to readership of over 250,000 views a month, making it one of the most visited blogs of an individual architect. As such, Bob has become a voice for architects as read by thousands of people. Bob's experience has lessons for those who wish to use the internet to find the right clients and use the power of the internet for marketing an architecture firm. In this interview, he discusses how his firm survived the lean years, how he finds new clients as an architect, why he started a blog, and social media for architects. On his blog, Life of an Architect, Bob writes about life through the lens of an architect. Some of his most popular posts cover subjects such as the reasons to be an architect, the reasons not to be an architect, how much money an architect makes and the salary of an architect, and the communication skills needed by architects. You can read more at his blog Life of an Architect. For more like this, visit Business of Architecture. Click here to read more about Blogging with Bob Borson, Life of an Architect, and Social Media for Architects